PictureArts Acquires Nonstock

PictureArts has completed an agreement with Nonstock Inc. to acquire the assets ofNonstock's unique, rights-managed picture collection. PictureArts currently managestwo successful RM brands -- FoodPix and Botanica -- and the RF brand, Brand X Pictures. This acquisition probably makes PictureArts the fourth largest imageryseller, in terms of gross revenue, with headquarters in the U.S.. It should be slightly ahead of Jupiterimages which recently acquired Comstock (See Story 625 ). (Amana, parent ofPhotonic and Iconica, Zefa and Digital Vision are all certainly larger, but have their headquarters outside the U.S. Masterfile in Canada may be about the same size.)

"The acquisition of this outstanding collection marks an important milestone in thegrowth of our company," says PictureArts' CEO, Jeffrey Burke. "Nonstock's imageswill be a strong complement to our existing rights-managed and royalty-free brands.They have a significant roster of Contributing Artists that we are eager to meet.Their distribution network includes a number of strong agents, many that we alreadysuccessfully work with. We have big plans for Nonstock as a PictureArts company."

Nonstock was created in 1994 by Jerry Tavin and Janou Pakter as an artistic andimaginative alternative image source. The collection now represents over 40,000pictures from 500 artists, and is distributed worldwide.

"I'm confident that PictureArts will be able to take Nonstock in the direction itneeds to go for further growth. I'm very pleased to be joining with such aprogressive and successful company," says Jerry Tavin, Nonstock's founder andpresident. Tavin has been appointed to the position of Senior Consultant for Artistand International Relations with PictureArts.

The Nonstock office in Manhattan will soon become PictureArts' New York office forsales and Nonstock creative. Integration of the Nonstock staff, data and images willbegin immediately, gradually folding all the Nonstock assets and operations intoPictureArts' enterprise.

Integration of accounting data and processes after an acquisition has been a majorproblem for some companies in this industry, but Burke says they have a number offormer Getty and Corbis people on their staff and believe they have learnedfrom the mistakes of these companies. They are hopeful that they will have allcontributor information fully integrated by mid-May. Integration of all the imagesinto the PictureArts database and launch of a completely new PictureArts site isexpected to be completed by the end of this summer.

"We're excited to add the Nonstock library to our company," says Lorraine Triolo,PictureArts' Creative Director. "Their collection has a solid core of original andinteresting pictures. Their Contributors include some excellent fashion and fine artphotographers with whom we are eager to work. Many of their photographers are fromoutside the mainstream photo industry. We look forward to our first meeting withthem in about a month."

PictureArts has planned a meeting in Manhattan where Nonstock's Contributors canbecome familiar with their company, talk about future plans for the brand and invitethem to expand their relationship with PictureArts through other collections.Contributors are now being notified of the meeting and introductory details. All RMcontracts with contributors are on a 50/50 basis, but contributors should recognizethat a high percentage of PictureArts sales are made through Portals and Sub-agentsand that the photographer is receiving 50% of what PictureArts receives from theseportals and sub-agents, not 50% of the gross sale fee. Nevertheless, the totalrevenue that PictureArts receives is significant (as mentioned above in the firstparagraph). It is also interesting to note as we pointed out in Story 610 that PictureArts images offered on the Getty Images site are priced at a much higherpremium than even Stone images and much more that TIB of Taxi images. Thus,PictureArts photographers, even with the added cut, will probably earn almost asmuch for the sale of one of their images as TIB or Taxi photographers earn from the sale of their images.

"Our main focus initially will be the grooming and growth of the collection. Thisbegins with introducing our company to their artists, and their artists to ourcreative group," says Burke. "We plan to make substantial investments in contentdevelopment. A fundamentally solid, and strategically appropriate collection ofpictures is the basis for all our future opportunities with Nonstock."

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.

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